Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden reacts while giving a speech during a campaign event at Tougaloo College on March 08, 2020 in Tougaloo, Mississippi.
Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images
Former Vice President Joe Biden will win Mississippi’s Democratic presidential primary, besting rival Sen. Bernie Sanders and continuing his dominance throughout the South, according to a projection from NBC News.
Mississippi will award a total of 36 delegates. According to NBC News, Biden will win at least 24 of them.
Biden dominated among the state’s large black electorate and with voters older than 45.
Biden won 84% of the nearly two-thirds of the electorate that was black, compared to 13% for Sanders, according to NBC News exit polling data. Biden scored 86% among voters over 45-years-old, compared to 12% for Sanders.
The former vice president also notched broad victories across the ideological spectrum, winning 71% of very liberal voters and 86% of moderates.
Biden’s victory in the state follows a strong showing on Super Tuesday earlier in March on the strength of wins in Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia and the Carolinas, among other states.
Biden was expected to carry Mississippi, and earned the backing of many elected officials there ahead of voting. On Thursday, all 16 members of the state’s Senate Democratic Caucus endorsed the former vice president.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, also put his support behind Biden.
Hillary Clinton beat Sanders in Mississippi by more than 60 points in 2016, winning every county. President Donald Trump went on to beat Clinton in the state, which has 6 Electoral College votes.
Five other states, including Missouri, Idaho, Washington, Michigan and North Dakota, are also holding contests on Tuesday. Biden will win in Missouri, according to a projection from NBC News.